Message from the Executive Dean

Staff news

Message from the Executive Dean

This is our inaugural staff Faculty newsletter which will be distributed quarterly to all staff in the Faculty of Health Sciences. This is also the first newsletter to be distributed by any Faculty via the University's new CRM system. The objective of the newsletter is to keep everyone informed of developments in the Faculty. I welcome your comments on the newsletter so we can work to improve it, and include items that are of particular interest to staff in the Faculty.

The Faculty over-enrolled in 2012. In this first year of the "Bradley" era, with the uncapping of domestic students places, this situation was expected. Where some courses on some campuses 'under-offered' this shortfall was met by 'over-offering' in other courses and on different campuses. International enrolment figures were down slightly - again this was to be expected in the light of recent factors including changes to student visa regulations, the GFC, and strong Australian dollar, however I am happy with the gradual reduction of the percentage of international students particularly in the Bachelor of Nursing.

Professor of Occupational Therapy/Head, School of Allied and Public Health - Professor Christine Imms commenced in December 2011 and is based in Melbourne.

Head, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine - Professor Mary Courtney commenced in January 2012 and is based in Brisbane.

Professor of Emergency Nursing - Professor Rose Chapman commenced in January 2012. This is a joint position between the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine (Melbourne campus) and Southern Health (Vic).

A number of courses will be added to the Faculty's suite of offerings in 2013: The deferred Bachelors of Applied Public Health and of Nursing/Business Administration will both be offered from 2013 in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Associate Professor Shawn Somerset is working with Associate Professor Karen Flowers to develop proposals for Applied Public Health dual degrees for implementation in 2014.

In addition to these two degrees, in 2013 the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy will be extended to North Sydney and the Bachelor of Speech Pathology will be offered in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The MBA (Health) will be offered from July 2012. By integrating online and intensive delivery mode the MBA (Health) opens up the possibility for staff of corporate clients to participate in postgraduate study.